


It Goes Like This

by kijikun



Category: Homestuck
Genre: Death from Old Age, Ficlet, Fluff and Angst, Flushed Romance | Matesprits, Multi, Sadstuck, Threesome - F/M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-11-22
Updated: 2012-11-22
Packaged: 2017-11-19 05:54:58
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 539
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/569885
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kijikun/pseuds/kijikun
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It goes like this:</p><p>Jade reads to them at night</p>
            </blockquote>





	It Goes Like This

It goes like this:

Jade reads to them at night. Sometimes she reads fairy tales, sometimes Earth epics, sometimes Troll ones. She’s learning to read troll writing because it isn’t fair to just read her and Dave’s cultural stories to them.

Dave curls with his head in her lap as she read. Karkat leans just slightly against her, his head resting gently on her shoulder. Both Jade’s boys have sharp edges, but with her the edges dull and soften.

She reads because Karkat is already having vision problems - they don’t talk about what that could mean. She reads because Dave’s eyes hurt in the light needed for reading from a book. She reads because she loves them.

They listen because they love her. The lit of her voice, the sound of her fingers turning pages, and mood she weaves over their small room.

Dave often falls asleep in her lap. Karkat still has trouble sleeping and still prefers to sleep during the day.

It goes like this:

Karkat knows they’ll outlive him. So he softens his insults, softens his words. Tries to make it so they won’t regret having wasted time on him when he’s gone. His bloodpusher aches at the thought of leaving them, but his oculars are going dim and every night he finds new aches.

Dave prods him until he starts insulting people again. Jade teases until he calls her a fuckass in tones of affection only a few people have heard. He stops trying to be someone else, and everyone is happier for it.

Jade rubs his shoulders, and Dave keeps pressing apple juice on him as if it’ll help anything.

He hopes he lives long enough to see them have children.

It goes like this:

Dave knows Karkat is going to die first. Jade’s in denial, but Dave knows the score. He doesn’t want Karkat to die. It doesn’t seem fair that they only get a handful of years. If they were still in the game, he’d cheat time, he’d anything to keep Karkat alive at least as long as him and Jade.

He annoys Karkat with his raps and apple juice. He refuses to act like Karkat is an old man at ten sweeps. He refuses to let Karkat act like anyone but himself.

When Karkat tells him that he wants to see his and Jade’s children before he goes, Dave is angry for days. Does Karkat think they’ll have a baby and forget him?

Dave talks to Jade who laughs and smiles and says she has something to tell him.

It goes like this:

Jade gives birth to a girl they name Meenah.

Two years later she has twins they name John and Jane.

Karkat lives to see the twins. And the year after that, and the year after that.

Karkat seems to stop aging at sixteen sweeps. He lives to see the children’s children, who all call him grandpa.

He outlives Dave. He outlives Jade.

He outlives Kanaya and Rose.

He sees great-grandchildren.

Karkat outlives Gamzee.

One night he goes to sleep and doesn’t wake up. Jade and Dave descendants say its because he couldn’t stand the separation any longer.

When Karkat opens his eyes, Jade and Dave are there.

Smiling.


End file.
